Tuesday, September 18, 2012

1. WRITE A LETTER TO YOUR WOMB
2. CELEBRATE THE 7 GLANDS....A VISUALIZATION AND MEDITATION LYING DOWN
3. LAUGH THE 7 GLANDS/SOUND THE GLANDS......STAND AND LYING DOWN
4. PERFORM THE GLANDS.....
5. THEN PERFORM THE OVARIES.....
6. BLESS THE WOMB WITH LIGHT

Recently I attended an incredibly great Mission Institute and got so re-inspired about Maryknoll (having been a novice there in the early 60's) and as a Full Circle member, I thought, "How can I be even more involved in mission there, at the Motherhouse or even on mission?"
One of the sisters there mentioned Maryknoll Affiliates as a possible place for my energies and interests. When I mentioned this to another Full Circle member, my friend from Maryknoll, 1960,Carolyn Grassi, she contacted the Maryknoll Affiliates (in the East Bay California) and learned that they are "officially" sponsored by/connected with the Maryknoll Fathers and brothers, not directly with the Maryknoll Sisters. She also mentioned that, as with the Maryknoll magazine, donations are directed to the Fathers, unless specifically designated for the sisters. Of course, both the magazine and affiliates programs encourage collaboration with the sisters.
This information made me stop in my tracks. Is it because I am at a late life stage of wanting Justice! Accountability! Fairness! Truth! to be present in my life? All I knew is that I felt discouraged that I could not be part of the Affiliates because my heart-loyalty is to the Sisters. And so is my pocketbook!
Now our question is: is there a way that the Maryknoll Sisters can be full partners in the Maryknoll Affiliate program, that is, automatically have financial equality with any general donations. Also, it would be wonderful for the Sisters to be featured equally in the Affliates web sites, retreat events, etc.
I keep asking almost daily, what is my mission? And maybe this is an alternative mission for me; that is, to write this letter and ask these questions, hoping that equality is established in this very important and timely matter as all sisters contemplate new truths.

Navigating The Shifts- LCWR Presidential Address
POSTED AUGUST 11, 2012
In her Presidential Address to the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, Sr Pat Farrell reflecting on the changes and challenges of our time spoke about the Gospel image of the mustard seed: ”We live in joyful hope, willing to be weeds one and all. I hold forever in my heart an expression of the dying and rising of Jesus from the days of the dictatorship in Chile: “They can crush a few flowers but they can’t hold back the springtime.” Full text….
Navigating the Shifts
Pat Farrell, OSF
Presidential Address, 2012 LCWR Assembly
The address that I am about to give is not the one I had imagined. After the
lovely contemplative tone of last summer’s assembly, I had anticipated simply
articulating from our contemporary religious life reflections some of the new
things we sense that God has been doing. Well, indeed we have been sensing
new things. The doctrinal assessment, however, is not what I had in mind!
Clearly, there has been a shift! Some larger movement in the Church, in the
world, has landed on LCWR. We are in a time of crisis and that is a very hopeful
place to be. As our main speaker, Barbara Marx Hubbard, has indicated, crisis
precedes transformation. It would seem that an ecclesial and even cosmic
transformation is trying to break through. In the doctrinal assessment we’ve
been given an opportunity to help move it. We weren’t looking for this
contoversy. Yet I don’t think that it is by accident that it found us. No, there is
just too much synchronicity in events that have prepared us for it. The apostolic
visitation galvanized the solidarity among us. Our contemplative group reflection
has been ripenening our spiritual depth. The 50th anniversary of the Vatican II
approaches. How significant for us who took it so to heart and have been so
shaped by it! It makes us recognize with poignant clarity what a very different
moment this is. I find my prayer these days often taking the form of lamentation.
Yes, something has shifted! And now, here we are, in the eye of an ecclesial
storm, with a spotlight shining on us and a microphone placed at our mouths.
What invitation, what opportunity, what responsibility is ours in this? Our LCWR
mission statement reminds us that our time is holy, our leadership is gift, and our
challenges are blessings.
I think It would be a mistake to make too much of the docrinal assessment. We
cannot allow it to consume an inordinate amount of our time and energy or to
distract us from our mission. It is not the first time that a form of religious life has
collided with the institutional Church. Nor will it be the last. We’ve seen an
apostolic visitation, the Quinn Commission, a Vatican intervention of CLAR and of
the Jesuits. Many of the foundresses and founders of our congregations
struggled long for canonical approval of our institutes. Some were even silenced
or ex-communicated. A few of them, as in the cases of Mary Ward and Mary
McKillop, were later canonized. There is an inherent existential tension between
the complementary roles of hierarchy and religious which is not likely to change.
In an ideal ecclesial world, the different roles are held in creative tension, with
mutual respect and appreciation, in an enviroment of open dialogue, for the
building up of the whole Church. The doctrinal assessment suggests that we are
not currently living in an ideal ecclesial world.
I also think it would be a mistake to make too little of the doctrinal assessment.
The historical impact of this moment is clear to all of us. It is reflected in the care
with which LCWR members have both responded and not responded, in an effort
to speak with one voice. We have heard it in more private conversations with
concerned priests and bishops. It is evident in the immense groundswell of
support from our brother religious and from the laity. Clearly they share our
concern at the intolerance of dissent even from those with informed consciences,
the continued curtailing of the role of women. Here are selections from one of
the many letters I have received: “I am writing to you because I am watching at
this pivotal moment in our planet’s spiritual history. I believe that all the Catholic
faithful must be enlisted in your efforts, and that this crisis be treated as the 21st
century catalyst for open debate and a rush of fresh air through every stained
glass window in the land.” Yes, much is at stake. Through it all, we can only go
forward with truthfulness and integrity. Hopefully we can do so in a way that
contributes to the good of religious life everywhere and to the healing of the
fractured Church we so love. It is no simple thing. We walk a fine line. Gratefully,
we walk it together.
In the context of Barbara Marx Hubbard’s presentation, it is easy to see this LCWR
moment as a microcosm of a world in flux. It is nested within the very large and
comprehensive paradigm shift of our day. The cosmic breaking down and
breaking through we are experiencing gives us a broader context. Many
institutions, traditions, and structures seem to be withering. Why? I believe the
philosophical underpinnings of the way we’ve organized reality no longer hold.
The human family is not served by individualism, patriarchy, a scarcity mentality,
or competition. The world is outgrowing the dualistic constructs of
superior/inferior, win/lose, good/bad, and domination/submission. Breaking
through in their place are equality, communion, collaboration, synchronicity,
expansiveness, abundance, wholeness, mutuality, intuitive knowing, and love.
This shift, while painful, is good news! It heralds a hopeful future for our Church
and our world. As a natural part of evolutionary advance, it in no way negates or
undervalues what went before. Nor is there reason to be fearful of the
cataclysmic movements of change swirling around us. We only need to recognize
the movement, step into the flow, and be carried by it. Indeed, all creation is
groaning in one great act of giving birth. The Spirit of God still hovers over the
chaos. This familiar poem of Christopher Fry captures it:
”The human heart can go the length of God.
Cold and dark, it may be
But this is no winter now.
The frozen misery of centuries cracks, breaks, begins to move.
The thunder is the thunder of the floes.
The thaw, the flood, the up-start spring.
Thank God, our time is now
When wrong comes up to face us everywhere
Never to leave until we take
The greatest stride of soul that people ever took
Affairs are now soul-size.
The enterprise is exploration into God…” Christopher Fry – A Sleep of Strangers
I would like to suggest a few ways for us to navigate the large and small changes
we are undergoing. God is calling to us from the future. I believe we are being
readied for a fresh inbreaking of the Reign of God. What can prepare us for that?
Perhaps there are answers within our own spiritual DNA. Tools that have served
us through centuries of religious life are, I believe, still a compass to guide us now.
Let us consider a few, one by one.
1.How can we navigate the shifts? Through contemplation.
How else can we go forward except from a place of deep prayer? Our
vocations, our lives, begin and end in the desire for God. We have a lifetime of
being lured into union with divine Mystery. That Presence is our truest home.
The path of contemplation we’ve been on together is our surest way into the
darkness of God’s leading. In situations of impasse, it is only prayerful
spaciousness that allows what wants to emerge to manifest itself. We are at such
an impasse now. Our collective wisdom needs to be gathered. It germinates in
silence, as we saw during the six weeks following the issuing of the mandate from
the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. We wait for God to carve out a
deeper knowing in us. With Jan Richardson we pray:
“You hollow us out, God, so that we may carry you, and you endlessly fill us only
to be emptied again. Make smooth our inward spaces and sturdy, that we may
hold you with less resistance and bear you with deeper grace.”
Here is one image of contemplation: 1 the prairie. The roots of prairie
grass are extraordinarily deep. Prairie grass acutally enriches the land. It
produced the fertile soil of the Great Plains. The deep roots aerate the soil and
decompose into rich, productive earth. Interestingly, a healthy prairie needs to
be burned regularly. 2 It needs the heat of the fire and the clearing away of the
grass itself to bring the nutrients from the deep roots to the surface, supporting
new growth. This burning reminds me of a similar image. There is a kind of
Eucalyptus tree in Australia whose seeds cannot germinate without a forest fire.
The intense heat cracks open the seed and allows it to grow. Perhaps with us,
too, there are deep parts of ourselves activated only when more shallow layers
are stripped away. We are pruned and purified in the dark night. In both
contemplation and conflict we are mulched into fertility. As the burning of the
prairie draws energy from the roots upward and outward, contemplation draws
us toward fruitful action. It is the seedbed of a prophetic life. Through it, God
shapes and strengthens us for what is needed now.
2. How can we navigate the shifts? With a prophetic voice
The vocation of religious life is prophetic and charismatic by nature,
offering an alternate lifestyle to that of the dominant culture. The call of Vatican
II, which we so conscientiously heeded, urged us to respond to the signs of our
times. For fifty years women religious in the United States have been trying to do
so, to be a prophetic voice. There is no guarantee, however, that simply by virtue
of our vocation we can be prophetic. Prophecy is both God’s gift as well as the
product of rigorous asceticism. Our rootedness in God needs to be deep enough
and our read on reality clear enough for us to be a voice of conscience. It is
usually easy to recognize the prophetic voice when it is authentic. It has the
freshness and freedom of the Gospel: open, and favoring the disenfranchised.
The prophetic voice dares the truth. We can often hear in it a questioning of
established power, and an uncovering of human pain and unmet need. It
challenges structures that exclude some and benefit others. The prophetic voice
urges action and a choice for change.
Considering again the large and small shifts of our time, what would a
prophetic response to the doctrinal assessment look like? I think it would be
humble, but not submissive; rooted in a solid sense of ourselves, but not self-
righteous; truthful, but gentle and absolutely fearless. It would ask probing
questions. Are we being invited to some appropriate pruning, and would we
open to it? Is this doctrinal assessment process an expression of concern or an
attempt to control? Concern is based in love and invites unity. Control through
fear and intimidation would be an abuse of power. Does the institutional
legitimacy of canonical recognition empower us to live prophetically? Does it
allow us the freedom to question with informed consciences? Does it really
welcome feedback in a Church that claims to honor the sensus fidelium, the sense
of the faithful? In the words of Bob Beck, “A social body without a mechanism for
registering dissent is like a physical body that cannot feel pain. There is no way to
get feedback that says that things are going wrong. Just as a social body that
includes little more than dissent is as disruptive as a physical body that is in
constant pain. Both need treatment.”
When I think of the prophetic voice of LCWR, specifically, I recall the
statement on civil discourse from our 2011 assembly. In the context of the
doctrinal assessment, it speaks to me now in a whole new way. St. Augustine
expressed what is needed for civil discourse with these words: “Let us, on both
sides, lay aside all arrogance. Let us not, on either side, claim that we have
already discovered the truth. Let us seek it together as something which is known
to neither of us. For then only may we seek it, lovingly and tranquilly, if there be
no bold presumption that it is already discovered and possessed.”
In a similar vein, what would a prophetic response to the larger paradigm
shifts of our time look like? I hope it would include both openness and critical
thinking, while also inspiring hope. We can claim the future we desire and act
from it now. To do this takes the discipline of choosing where to focus our
attention. If our brains, as neuroscience now suggests, take whatever we focus
on as an invitation to make it happen, then the images and visions we live with
matter a great deal. So we need to actively engage our imaginations in shaping
visions of the future. Nothing we do is insignificant. Even a very small conscious
choice of courage or of conscience can contribute to the transformation of the
whole. It might be, for instance, the decision to put energy into that which seems
most authentic to us, and withdraw energy and involvement from that which
doesn’t. This kind of intentionaltiy is what Joanna Macy calls active hope. It is
both creative and prophetic. In this difficult, transitional time, the future is in
need of our imagination and our hopefulness. In the words of the French poet
Rostand:
“It is at night that it is important to believe in the light; one must force the
dawn to be born by believing in it.”
3. How can we navigate the shifts? Through solidarity with the marginalized.
We cannot live prophetically without proximity to those who are vulnerable and
marginalized. First of all, that is where we belong. Our mission is to give
ourselves away in love, particularly to those in greatest need. This is who we are
as women religious. But also, the vantage point of marginal people is a privileged
place of encounter with God, whose preference is always for the outcast. There
is important wisdom to be gleaned from those on the margins. Vulnerable human
beings put us more in touch with the truth of our limited and messy human
condition, marked as it is by fragility, incompleteness, and inevitable struggle.
The experience of God from that place is one of absolutely gratuitous mercy and
empowering love. People on the margins who are less able to and less invested
in keeping up appearances, often have an uncanny ability to name things as they
are. Standing with them can help situate us in the truth and helps keep us
honest. We need to see what they see in order to be prophetic voices for our
world and Church, even as we struggle to balance our life on the periphery with
fidelity to the center.
Collectively women religious have immense and varied experiences of
ministry at the margins. Has it not been the privilege of our lives to stand with
oppressed peoples? Have they not taught us what they have learned in order to
survive: resiliency, creativity, solidarity, the energy of resistance, and joy? Those
who live daily with loss can teach us how to grieve and how to let go. They also
help us see when letting go is not enough. There are structures of injustice and
exclusion that need to be unmasked and systematically removed. I offer this
image of active dismantling. These pictures were taken in Suchitoto, El Salvador
the day of celebration of the peace accords. 4 5 That morning, people came out
of their homes with sledge hammers and began to knock down the bunkers, to
dismantle the machinery of war. 6
4. How can we navigate the shifts? Through community
Religious have navigated many shifts over the years because we’ve done it
together. We find such strength in each other! 7 In the last fifty years since
Vatican II our way of living community has shifted dramatically. It has not been
easy and continues to evolve, within the particular US challenge of creating
community in an individualistic culture. Nonetheless, we have learned invaluable
lessons.
We who are in positions of leadership are constantly challenged to honor a
wide spectrum of opinions. We have learned a lot about creating community
from diversity, and about celebrating differences. We have come to trust
divergent opinions as powerful pathways to greater clarity. Our commitment to
community compels us to do that, as together we seek the common good.
We have effectively moved from a hierarchically structured lifestyle in our
congregations to a more horizontal model. It is quite amazing, considering the
rigidity from which we evolved. The participative structures and collaborative
leadership models we have developed have been empowering, lifegiving. These
models may very well be the gift we now bring to the Church and the world.
From an evolved experience of community, our understanding of
obedience has also changed. This is of particular importance to us as we discern a
response to the doctrinal assessment. How have we come to understand what
free and responsible obedience means? A response of integrity to the mandate
needs to come out of our own understanding of creative fidelity. Dominican Judy
Schaefer has beautifully articulated theological underpinnings of what she calls
“obedience in community” or “attentive discipleship.” They reflect our post-
Vatican II lived experience of communal discernment and decision making as a
faithful form of obedience. She says: “Only when all participate actively in
attentive listening can the community be assured that it has remained open and
obedient to the fullness of God’s call and grace in each particular moment in
history.” Isn’t that what we have been doing at this assembly? Community is
another compass as we navigate our way forward. Our world has changed. I
celebrate that with you through the poetic words of Alice Walker, from her book
entitled Hard Times Require Furious Dancing:
The World Has Changed
The world has changed:
Wake up & smell
the possibility.
The world
has changed:
It did not
change
without
your prayers
without
your determination
to
believe
in liberation
&
kindness;
without
your
dancing
through the years
that had
no
beat.
The world has changed:
It did not
change
without
your
numbers
your
fierce
love
of self
&
cosmos
it did not
change
without
your
strength.
The world has
changed:
Wake up!
Give yourself
the gift
of a new
day.
8
5. How can we navigate the shifts? Non-violently
The breaking down and breaking through of massive paradigm shift is a
violent sort of process. It invites the inner strength of a non-violent response.
Jesus is our model in this. His radical inclusivity incited serious consequences. He
was violently rejected as a threat to the established order. Yet he defined no one
as enemy and loved those who persecuted him. Even in the apparent defeat of
crucifixion, Jesus was no victim. He stood before Pilate declaring his power to lay
down his life, not to have it taken from him.
What, then, does non-violence look like for us? It is certainly not the
passivity of the victim. It entails resisting rather than colluding with abusive
power. It does mean, however, accepting suffering rather than passing it on. It
refuses to shame, blame, threaten or demonize. In fact, non-violence requires
that we befriend our own darkness and brokeness rather than projecting it onto
another. This, in turn, connects us with our fundamental oneness with each
other, even in conflict. Non-violence is creative. It refuses to accept ultimatums
and dead-end definitions without imaginative attempts to reframe them. When
needed, I trust we will name and resist harmful behavior, without retaliation. We
can absorb a certain degree of negativity without drama or fanfare, choosing not
to escalate or lash out in return. My hope is that at least some measure of
violence can stop with us.
Here I offer the image of a lightning rod. 9 Lightning, the electrical charge
generated by the clash of cold and warm air, is potentially destructive to
whatever it strikes. 10 A lightning rod draws the charge to itself, channels and
grounds it, providing protection. A lightning rod doesn’t hold onto the destructive
energy but allows it to flow into the earth to be transformed.
11
6. How can we navigate the shifts? By living in joyful hope
Joyful hope is the hallmark of genuine discipleship. We look forward to a
future full of hope, in the face of all evidence to the contrary. Hope makes us
attentive to signs of the inbreaking of the Reign of God. Jesus describes that
coming reign in the parable of the mustard seed.
Let us consider for a moment what we know about mustard. Though it can
also be cultivated, mustard is an invasive plant, essentially a weed. 12 The image
you see is a variety of mustard that grows in the Midwest. Some exegetes tell us
that when Jesus talks about the tiny mustard seed growing into a tree so large
that the birds of the air come and build their nest in it, he is probably joking. 13
To imagine birds building nests in the floppy little mustard plant is laughable. It is
likely that Jesus’ real meaning is something like Look, don’t imagine that in
following me you’re going to look like some lofty tree. Don’t expect to be Cedars
of Lebanon or anything that looks like a large and respectable empire. But even
the floppy little mustard plant can support life. Mustard, more often than not, is a
weed. 14 Granted, it’s a beautiful and medicinal weed. Mustard is flavorful and
has wonderful healing properties. 15 It can be harvested for healing, and its
greatest value is in that. But mustard is usually a weed. 16 It crops up anywhere,
without permission. And most notably of all, it is uncontainable. It spreads
prolifically and can take over whole fields of cultivated crops. 17 You could even
say that this little nuisance of a weed was illegal in the time of Jesus. There were
laws about where to plant it in an effort to keep it under control.
Now, what does it say to us that Jesus uses this image to describe the Reign
of God? Think about it. We can, indeed, live in joyful hope because there is no
political or ecclesiastical herbicide that can wipe out the movement of God’s
Spirit. Our hope is in the absolutely uncontainable power of God. We who pledge
our lives to a radical following of Jesus can expect to be seen as pesty weeds that
need to be fenced in. 18 If the weeds of God’s Reign are stomped out in one
place they will crop up in another. I can hear, in that, the words of Archbishop
Oscar Romero “If I am killed, I will arise in the Salvadoran people.”
And so, we live in joyful hope, willing to be weeds one and all. We stand in
the power of the dying and rising of Jesus. I hold forever in my heart an
expression of that from the days of the dictatorship in Chile: “Pueden aplastar
algunas flores, pero no pueden detener la primavera.” “They can crush a few
flowers but they can’t hold back the springtime.”

For any place that I workshop or show my work. To be altered according to the selected items in the show.

1. TO BEGIN: LOOK AT MY WEB: WWW.LINDAMONTANO.COM ART/LIFE STORY

2. ORDER HEART BALLOONS AND THEY CAN BE PAPER MACHED FOR FINAL EVENT. SUGGESTIONS THAT I WILL GIVE YOU WILL BE PUT IN THE BALLOONS AND THEY WILL BE OPENED AS A PINATA AT THE CLOSING AFTER THE VIDEOS BY THE CLASS OF COLLABORATORS.

3. FINAL EVENT: PARTICIPANTS DRESS IN THE COLOR OF THE GLAND(CHAKRA), GIVE "FOOD"? NEED A MASTER OF CEREMONIES. THEY PRESENT THEIR 3 MINUTE VIDEOS PROJECTED ONTO THE FRONT WALL AFTER MY 7 HOUR PERFORMANCE 5-7PM CLOSING IN MAY.

4.SOME SUGGESTIONS AFTER THEY HAVE SEEN THE SHOW: 14 YEARS OF LIVING ART

A. WEAR ONE COLOR CLOTHES FOR A WEEK, MONTH , THREE MONTHS. CAN BE AN ACCESSORY LIKE SOCKS, SCARF INSTEAD OF EVERYTHIN...14 YEARS OF LIVING ART

B. MAKE ONE DRAWING A DAY FOR: 7 DAYS, 14 DAYS, EVERY HOUR FOR 7 HOURS ETC.. 14 DRAWINGS

C. SPEND 3 HOURS (DAYS, A MONTH) WITH A FRIEND AND KEEP A WRITTEN/VIDEO DIARY/DOCUMENT. HANDCUFF WITH TOM MARIONI

D. TALK TO A FRIEND, GROUP, MALL VISITORS ETC ABOUT NUTRITION, EATING DISORDERS, THE MEDIA'S ATTEMPT TO MAKE US NOT LOVE OUR BODIES. VIDEO THE WISDOM YOU HAVE GATHERED. ANOREXIA NERVOSA

E. INTERVIEW AN ELDER AND RECORD THEIR LIFE/TEACHINGS. ALWAYS CREATIVE

F. GIVE EMOTIONAL/PHYSICAL SUPPORT TO A FRIEND, FAMILY MEMBER, STRANGER. I.E.WORK AT A SOUP KITCHEN FOR THE MONTHS OF THE SHOW. ART/LIFE COUNSELING

G. DO YOU HAVE A HIGHER POWER? SHARE THAT RELATIONSHIP WITH SELF/OTHERS/AN ANIMAL/NATURE. 7 SPIRITUAL LIVES OF LINDA MONTANO

H. CREATE YOUR OWN CREATIVE EVERYDAY LIFE EXPERIENCES/EXERCISES. YOU 2 R A PERFORMANCE ARTIST
I. WHAT ABOUT DEATH? MITCHELL'S DEATH

J. BE THE MOST FABULOUS PERSON IN THE WHOLE WORLD. TALK AS HER/HIM ON VIDEO. LEARNING TO TALK

IN ALL OF THESE EXPERIENCES, BE CAREFUL, ALTER THE SUGGESTIONS TO FIT YOUR NEEDS. NOTHING DANGEROUS TO SELF OR OTHERS IS TO BE CONSIDERED OR DONE.

The Art of Collaborating and Mentoring: a Conversation Between Linda Mary Montano and Nicolás Dumit Estévez

NDE: Dear Linda, I greatly welcome the opportunity to talk with you. I find that our conversations, at least from my perspective as an artist from a younger generation, serve a very valuable pedagogical role. Learning with you is always surprising, never stale or prescribed. It is fun and scary. I will always remember the day you suggested I make an appointment to present my art project to a priest. Only you! I never know what your “assignments” might be.

NDE: Can you talk about your history of collaborations with other artists?
LMM: I cannot mention the names of other "artists" Nicolás, because that is the beginning of a big sin....mention one and not the others!!!!So I will begin with my first "lifeist" collaboration and that was with my grandmother, Lena. She was formidable, large, totally zen, beyond talented, an outsider "artist" and my first teacher. As a small child, I would come home from school in now-chic upstate NY, Saugerties, and walk 3 minutes, unaccompanied, to my grandmother's home and watched her for at least 3 hours a day. I was being trained in seeing then doing and not talking, not asking questions and not having to ever critique or judge her or me or the creative process. We collaborated in a very Asian way....the way of watching, not doing. Throughout my life I have had very similar relationships with teachers who gave birth to my creativity via their letting me be in their beauty-presence. I imagine that collaboration is a similar infusion of energized ecstasy.
This would be a good time to tell the following image-thief story. In 1997, I collaborated with a country, India. I was given a summer research grant while teaching at UT Texas and went to India to research death and nursing homes in Benares. What I learned about collaborating was more revealing than what I learned about death because I came face to face with my inner cultural consuming gene. The kind Benares man who opened my eyes to my pirating their country by coming there, doing my video then going home and using it to try to get tenure, was a true teacher! A Brahmin, he in both words, attitude and glance, let me know that coming to India to export "her" via my art, was not a good way to collaborate with his MOTHER INDIA! I was totally taught the sin of insensitive snap-snap then leave-leave. This collaboration with his India, gone amuck, changed my whole life and altered the way I practice, in fact, I started collaborating with my own physical home and myself much more intentionally!

NDE: Given your involvement with art in everyday life, and the openness with which you have framed (unframed?) your art practice and your day to day, how would you define the concept of collaboration?
LMM: I imagine that it is like falling in love, or needing something that someone can do or needing to use what someone has. It is like feeling a mutuality of mirrored intention and vibed similarity of purpose or style. It is like being high or turned on and amazed that the 2 or 6 of you can make such beauty together. But therein lies the ephemerality of it. This is the utopian view but if you stay in a collaboration for more than one project, then you get into real time reality show stuff with feelings and rubbings of your art-skin against theirs. You get into whose name is first and where are we going to eat and who is paying for the meal tonight and how do you split the honorarium! Some people do this with great grace, some are not interested in grace, just struggle. Maybe the current cosmic "rapture' and Armageddon and fall of the empires will force a proximity and sharing and community mindedness that is less about us artist being singular individuals. Maybe collaboration will be the only way? Maybe we will hit the delete button of who is more famous and get so inspired by an OCCUPY WALLSTREET kind of mentality, that we will make efforts to share the limelight.

NDE: Can you think of a collaboration that, while artistic in nature, has taken place for you in your day to day? I am asking this thinking of the vast number of unstated collaborations in which we, human beings, engage in an on-going basis; collaborations with our mothers and fathers, with our teachers, and with society in general?
LMM: Currently, I am very interested in the ephemera of my dream life. It is good TV.

NDE: What would you say are the most important points for artists to keep in mind at the moment of initiating a dialogue about a potential collaboration?LMM: TAKE PRE-MARRIAGE COUNSELING!!!!!!!! Why? Because everything that couples will deal with in a traditional marriage, comes up in exactly the same way when 2 or more artists do a project. Brutal honesty should proceed the commitment of getting involved with each other. We usually fall into a project without any guidelines or rules but actually there is no need to feel shy or to be embarrassed by the monster hall of fame issues like: Whose name is first? How much money do we ask for? It was my idea and you are gobbling this up and have made it yours! Why did you get credit and I didn’t? Why are you making work exactly like mine? Why are you so jealous of me? Why do they always use a picture with you out front and me in the back? Why do I always have to do the PR? I'm tired of making lunch! I'm tired of paying for lunch! Why do we always use my car? Why does the press ask you questions and not me? Why do you sing so loud and drown me out? The concerns are endless.
These all sound ridiculous and funny but I really believe that people who work together should feel a permission to look at all of the life-stuff that bugs us because......just because we are these fabulous, genius, talented, star-artists doesn’t mean that we aren’t human babies with the emotional responses of a 6 year old in diapers! And when you get more than two 45 year old artists with 6 year old emotional/intellectual responses, the scene can be migraine-making and quite smelly.

NDE: Big Egos can easily interfere with the learning that could emerge through collaborations. Do you have a simple recipe for counteracting this situation?LMM: TAKE A PRE-MARRIAGE COUNSELING CLASS before the collaboration and write down concerns and talk about them before you start wildly texting and Skyping your great thoughts, ideas and dreams. Do it before dual arrogance sets in.

NDE: I don’t know if you have noticed a growing trend in the arts to engage in healing. However, I must say that as much as art can nourish one and heal one’s wounds, there is a side of Art that can be quite damaging. This is the face of Art that often surfaces when collaborations go wrong. Many of us have experienced this. What is your advice for recovering from a collaboration that has left one with a black eye, or a missing tooth?LMM: Silence. Don’t talk until you are ready to do the POST-MARRIAGE COUNSELING.

NDE: What is your dream collaboration? When answering this question, imagine there are no limits?LMM: A one night stand always works for me because then I don’t have to do the counseling. I can leave looking like a nice person and actually seem that way! More time together, more reality.

NDE: With whom and under what circumstances would you dream of collaborating?LMM: A large techie institution where the techie people are paid tons of money to assist artists to do work and a place that will pay the artists and collaborators good money as well. There is a level of BUSINESS and professionalism that can happen when things are cut and dried by this kind of institutionalism. Professional kindness. This makes everyone nice.
But maybe collaboration is over and a moot point? The internet has eliminated the need for face and accountability and presence and gratitude because we can log on and get what we need and delete what we don’t need and nothing needs to be traced to its source. And spending an hour on FB everyday is like a faux collaboration, allowing me to at least visually imagine that I am co-making that sculpture, co-designing that building, co-singing that song, co-creating that painting with the artist I am skimming by and then immediately deleting!!

NDE: Does it sound right to you to move into the subject of mentoring?LMM: Sure. If we were to trace our lives back, there is always a person, place or thing that gave us our wings. Asians know about this kind of lineage thinking and they learn how to thank the past , the present and how to give credit. We don’t know how to do that and we are not culturally grateful. I think it is an American cultural sin: we came here and pushed our way west without regard for anything but our push! We are consumers of beauty, consumers of ideas and consumers of others. But there is hope because the good manners of our global village co-inhabitors are beginning to be learned by our cowboy, lone ranger shoot em up selves. Plus I feel that lineage-gratitude and footnoting and giving credit needs to be taught in art schools.
But ideas are tricky things...They cant be held onto or claimed because often 329842390 people have the same idea and all want to make $87,878 on it. This is the sickness of art and self. In cultures where community/anonymity is the highest commodity and where sharing an experience is more important than being the main honcho, we get to see the model of art as a vehicle for the sacred.

NDE: At first sight, one could argue that there are marked differences between the concepts of collaboration and mentoring. There are also many similarities. What is your understanding of the two?LMM: We all want to be the boss. People who have not had children are totally dangerous when it comes to both collaboration and mentoring. The passive/aggressiveness and power over tussles can be suffocating. Why not adopt a child and then do art? Learn how to be selfless then collaborate.

NDE: Would you mind talking about the Summer Saint Camp? The reason I am asking is because, since I have never attended a camp session, I am curious as to how you would define the work you do there with students? Do you see it as mentoring?LMM: It was the SUMMER SAINT CAMP that I offered for 16 days during 7 years of 7 YEARSOF LIVNG ART. It was wonderful, I was a saint, they were saints, there was no power over stuff going on, no tension, no un-monastic attitudes by myself or the participants, no money issues...LOL!
But all kidding aside, my intention was good and there were 2 reasons:
1. I wanted to share what I was learning from my work with the chakras (at the time I arrogantly was sure that I had invented the chakras!) and
2. I wanted to have contact with other artists because I was living alone and knew that inviting company to live with me and practicing hospitality was healthy and healing. But as far as THE SUMMER SAINT CAMP being perfect or that I was a super-mentor, you would have to interview the 20 or so people who attended and ask their opinion of the experience.
And mentoring now, as I age? I feel I am harder to deal with and I think I was more utopian and sharing back then and more co-creative. Now i'm more of a nudge and it's a control freak attitude that creeps into the psyche as death nudges closer...it is fear disguised as attention to detail and being in control.

NDE: What is mentoring and what are the guidelines for a respectful mentorship in the arts; in art and life?LMM: Try to trace your ideas and credit the source; try to thank the gurus; try to thank the work and not get so god-goddess-like; try to relax about the whole art thing which can become a war and not a walk of beauty.

NDE: Any thoughts for sustaining a healthy, long-term, mentor-mentee relationship?LMM: Give nice gifts? Ask, "Is there anything I can do for you? " Go to them once a year and do 3 days of free seva. Footnote and mention them inside the article you are writing. Then pass on your tricks of the trade to somebody else coming along and vow not to get jealous when their star reaches further into the limelight than yours.

NDE: For a long time I have been experimenting with expanding the concept of collaboration and mentorship outside of the confines of the arts. It is obvious that you have been a pivotal figure at the forefront of this approach, can you tell us
the benefits a young artist can derive from working with mentors who don’t see or define themselves or what they do as art?LMM: Benefits are that the artist can relax because there is no power struggle or fear that the mentee might outstar them so it is a total win-win.

NDE: When I speak of young artists or artists from a younger generation, I am talking about individuals who are relatively new to the arts. These terms are not necessarily meant to refer to their physical age. I am trying to avoid using labels like: emerging artist, mid-career artist, for example. These labels can be confining. What is the “youngest” and the “oldest” person you have mentored?
LMM: I am a good baby whisperer and I do that whenever I can. My best friend from India let me mentor her in a spiritual practice when she was in her 80's and she was already an advanced practitioner. I was elated. It is obvious that some of us are teachers and sharers and if we take good care of ourselves intentionally, mentally, physically, psychologically, then we can do our thing without strife. Labels like mid-emerging are a form of bullying.

NDE: One of the most important lessons I have learned about the mentorship you have done with me is that this requires honesty, open communication, and one’s ability to trust the other. Would you like to add anything to this?LMM: Remind me how to do this when we work together again.

NDE: I know that you do mentoring live, and through the internet. What other ways of mentoring besides these two have you developed?LMM: Writing/video/performing.

NDE: What is your advice to people who are new to mentoring: mentors and mentees?LMM: Work with someone and see what happens. Tell them about your influences and people who held your hand throughout your stumblings. Have a baby or adopt one or caregive your parents.

NDE: I thank you for your guidance for almost seven years! I remember contacting you through e-mail in 2006. I was then working at Yaddo on a series of pilgrimages and related actions. And I remember hearing a voice telling me “Get in touch with Linda. Reach out to Linda.” And here we are!
LMM: LOL, I'm laughing because you are claiming that you did pilgrimages before you met me! And by claiming that publically in this interview, you are saying that the pilgrimage work that I did imitated your work, right? See Nicolás, this whole interview that you designed and led me into participating in was a Touche! and a way for you to say that you did it first and that maybe you, Nicolás are the mentor!!!! We are such complex beings, so wanting to claim CREATION when there is only the ONE DIVINE ARTIST who we imitate! But all said and done, it is fun playing mentor/mentee with you and maybe it's time for us to find a therapist? Make it a priest and we can both go to confession!

NDE: Linda, this makes me sad that you think this way. You are misinterpreting me. The voice I heard telling me to call you when I was at Yaddo meant to publicly acknowledge that you had tread the path before. I have a great deal to learn from you, and I am glad we connected. You have given me wings and, at times have given me a reassuring push off the cliff so I can try flying, rather than conceptualizing over and over the way one sometimes does with ART. I am borrowing the use of caps from you because I see astronomical differences between Art, ART and art.
For the last seven years we have worked very closely together and I will always thank you for being first, for going over table manners with me (and I always thought of myself as knowing how to use well my silverware, napkins and glassware), for guiding me through the footnoting process (this makes me rethink some of the rigorous, academic training I have undergone), and for being a generous friend and mentor to me. The Chicago Manual does not necessarily work in real life or when engaging in the process you have been calling for decades, art in everyday life. This is part of my confession. Do you still want to go to see a priest or should we head to a couple’s therapist? You can have the last word(s). But just remember you are my BIG ART HONCHO MAMA!LMM: Awww shucks, Nicolás, you are the best.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

LINDA MARY MONTANO'S PRAYER PERFORMANCE:A STUDY IN RECYCLING
ON July 4, August 1, September 5 and October 3, 2009, I will dress as MOTHER TERESA OF CALCUTTA and offer individaul prayers for those attending the Kingston Sculpture Biennial openings.

1. I will "recycle" MYSELF because as a 67 year old performance artist, I repeat the same images from the last 40 years,over and over.

2. I will "recycle" AN APPEARANCE OF MOTHER TERESA OF CALCUTTA,a Roman Catholic saint.

3. I will "recycle" and creatively use THE MOVEMENT DISORDER I have called, cervical dystonia, which allows me to imitate Mother Teresa of Calcutta's bent over and spastic looking posture as she aged.

4. I will "recycle" imagery and inspiration from one of THOMAS COLE'S PAINTINGS of the 4 ages of humans who are accompanied by angels.

5. I will "recycle" CARDBOARD AND PLASTIC BAGS and make angel wings which I will use in the performance.

6. I will "recycle" a WHITE SARI my second mother from India gave me. Her name is Dr. Aruna Mehta.

7. You will "recycle" the PRAYER I SAY FOR YOU and offer a prayer for SOMEONE IN YOUR LIFE, whenever you wish.

It is with great happiness that I sit with you today and
intervene in
collaboration with this distinguished panel. Let's give a round of applause to
Beth Stephens and her significant other and her energetic staff for bringing
all 247,000 conference details to successfull fruition. Now to my letter.

Beth, you have brought my face into the light of day, my face, once public
now has become the new private genital, tabooed by technology. Seen by few.

Beth, you have interrupted us and shyly we meet face to Face, in this glorious
re-union of pre-robotized, uninterrupted, still alive flesh; flesh fed and learning
how to feed.

Thanks for caring Beth,

Love,
Linda

P.S. We go home filled with hope and promise to use, as time permits, our new
intervention skills with a happy grace.

STATEMENT 2:

Now I ask you to help me, interrupt me.Then I will interrupt you,and the paper I
read will interrupt my video.
Here's the plan:
I need 7 volunteer interruptors and you get certificates stating that you too
are a performance artist. What do you do? When I read my paper you will
randomly call out your word to determine the accent that I use.

we, in a spirit of inclusive,
non-offensive,non-combative ecumenism could say that the 7
voices come from the 7 glands of the body, a reference
universally shared since we all have bodies, just not the same
religion.
Now, let's intervene..bring your hot, warm, light filled hands to
your ovaries/testes, your pancreas, your adrenals, your thymus,
your thyroid, your pineal, your pituitary.

Thank you, GLANDS OF
THE BODY.

STATEMENT 4:
The paper. Please change the tape. The interruptions now
begin.

"Dear FB,
For about a year, at the invitation of pioneer and techno-composer-legacy-holder, Pauline Oliveros, I have been "feeling" the family of FB and this internet/virtual relationship has generated new thoughts about art/life.
We are animal/human and need community. We attain and get that in many ways. It used to be neighborhoods but no more...kids cant play in the streets or their yards.
We used to go to church , no more, we used to visit relatives , no more. Silently and slowly we are being forced into non-horseback riding time and catapulting into robotization and computer mind. We are being lured into sub-cutaneous implants and AI and no-think and machine speed.
And the art world is led by the carrot of sameness into this silence by not offering any other options because:
Only the high rollers are getting the gigs and the teaching spots held tight by the past-timers.
Only the ones who will bring in the bucks are galleried.
Only the safe and sure are shown.(Names known by only the Guerilla Girls.)
Only the content that is wow and now is wanted.
Soooooooooooooooo
FB has become:
SCHOOL
GATHERING PLACE
HAPPY PARTY
JOB FINDER
MATE GATHERER
LOSS CONSOLER
RANT RECEIVER
PAST WORK DISPLAYER
DREAM MAKER
WHAT I ATE FOR LUNCH PHOTOGRAPHER
INSTANT AUDIENCE
TEACHER OF ART AS FREE COMMODITY
SHOW OFF CENTER
GROUP FORMER
JOB PLACEMENT SITE
FRIEND/FAN MAKER
PRODUCT/ART OBJECT ADVERTISER
RECESSION SNUBBER
GALLERY
SELF-IMPRESSION INFLATOR
RESURGER OF THE SPIRITUAL IN ART
DEPRESSION ADJUSTER
GREED DETHRONER
QUESTION ANSWERER
GRADUATE SEMINAR STUDY PLACE
NEW IDEA SHARER
PERSONAL BELL RINGER
WEBSITE ADVERTISER
FRIEND THIEF
I
NTELLECTUAL PROPERTY FORGETTER
PET PHOTO/VIDEO SHOWER
WASTER OF TIME
ADDICTION CREATOR

The list is longer for the positives and less for the delete/hide/escape apps.
And as a result, FB, I still like you, I share your wisdom and your messages and your great facilities. OK I am using you and asking periodically for help to sell my archive, to ask questions about where the gigs are these days, and other narcissistic dreams.
So maybe i'm not so pure and that money and being SEEN is more important than your friendship, but until I completely find your game a pitiful excuse for having a life, I will continue to tell all of my "friends" my news, the world's news and my extraordinary wisdom!
And in an early morning Starbucks burst of energy, I will continue to SHARE other wonderful and informative bites I find that all 28379874982749874 of you might like.
I know some will "hide" me but I will never know because I still have access to my other 409872474987 "friends". FB, I know that galleries are few, that $ is tight.
I know that 328479874329 people are seeing my videos for free via you, but i'm not bitter oh FB, i'm just glad to be in your family.
Art is finally about life and not art? How long this generosity and high lasts, who knows? Maybe not until the lawyers arrive.

Outside of the San Francisco Art Institute, around 1971, over 40 years ago, I placed a treadmill on the sidewalk and performed an endurance by walking continuously for three hours while repeating over and over an abridged story of my life.
I was wearing a tattered blue prom dress and a permanent smile device in my mouth and I'm sure I was accompanied by an audiotape of chicken sounds.

PAUSE NUMBER ONE:
Can you imagine joining me in making laughter sounds of appreciation for the seven glands of the body, specificially for the ovaries or testes? HA HA HA HO HO HO HEE HEE HEE, HA HA HA
END OF PAUSE

In retrospect, I can only imagine what my intentions may have been during my early performances. The four possibilites are:
NUMBER ONE: Maybe I beleived that repetitive telling of my traumas as art could detach me from mentally ruminating on them?
NUMBER TWO: Maybe I believed that by defusing my own history via repetition for three hours, that I could neurologically switch my own brain waves from the worry side over to the happy, no-worry brian?
NUMBER THREE: Maybe I beleived that via endurance and repetition, my story would become everyone's story and that as a group we could performatively creste an atmosphere of pleasant aesthetic suspension?
NUMBER FOUR: Maybe I was re-enacting the catholic Church's priesthood, reserved only for men?

PAUSE NUMBER TWO:
Can you imagine joining me in making laughter sounds of appreciation for the seven glands of the body, specifically for the pancreas?HA HA HA HO HO HO HEE HEE HEE HA HA HA
END OF PAUSE

Back to my story. Performance has always been my language of choice, my vehicle, my therapy, my medium, my livelihood, my mystery solver, my passionate habit, my redemptive link to the sacred. As a result, instead of constantly floundering in the wreckage of my everyday life, I make art. Not lots of art or slick art or marketable art or well-known art because my attraction has stylistically been to the art povera, to the hidden, to the distressed, to the simple, to the childlike, to the recycled.

PAUSE NUMBER THREE: Can you imagine joining me in making laughter sounds of appreciation for the seven glands of the body, specifically for the adrenals? HA HA HA HO HO HO HEE HEE HEE HA HA HAEND OF PAUSE

I ask myself why do I like art povera?
NUMBER ONE: Maybe it is because I harbor an addiction to victimhood?

PAUSE NUMBER FOUR: Can you imagine joining me in making laughter sounds of appreciation for the seven glands of the body, specifically for the thymus gland? HA HA HA HO HO HO HEE HEE HEE HA HA HA
END OF PAUSE

NUMBER TWO: Maybe I yearn to be seen as a tortured shamaness cured by austerities and penances and now wanting to heal others?

PAUSE NUMBER FIVE: Can you imagine joining me in making laughter sounds of appreciation for the seven glands of the body, specifically for the thyroid gland? HA HA HA HO HO HO HEE HEE HEE HA HA HAEND OF PAUSE

NUMBER THREE: Maybe I was so totally imprinted on the image of a life sized, scourged Christ hanging on the Crucifix , that I got stuck in an ecstatic and sublime need to suffer?

PAUSE NUMBER SIX: Can you imagine joining me in making laughter sounds of appreciation for the seven glands of the body, specifically the pineal gland? HA HA HA HO HO HO HEE HEE HEE HEE HA HA HAEND OF PAUSE
All of these academic guesses are really masking the simple truth that I choose to be foolish for art. Yes, I am a fool for art.

PAUSE NUMBER SEVEN: Can you imagine joining me in making laughter sounds of appreciation for the seven glands of the body, specifically for the pituitary gland? HA HA HA HO HO HO HEE HEE HEE HA HA HAEND OF PAUSE

To illustrate the strategies I use on my practice, I will share three films.
The first, titled DYSTONIA, is about an illness I have which neurologically causes pain, tremors and spasms. The botox injections I receive every three months somewhat alleviate the symptoms. In this film I do three things:NUMBER ONE: I show an uncomfortalbe medical procedure...needles being put in my neck.
NUMBER TWO: But in the soundtrack I contradict the shock, awe and pity party by having a child read a fairy tale. Oxymoron art.NUMBER THREE: The result is that humor drains the harsh reality of it's sting. Innocence trumps masochism.

Film number two is title MOTHER TERESA. One day while spasming from Dystonia, I was bent over, cramped, twisted, stiff and I said to myslef, quote," Linda, you look just like MOTHER TERESA." end quote. At that second another persona emerged. Not a bad trade off because from the loins of illness and medical misery sprung art. I call this film healing.

Film number three is titled THANK YOU DR ARUNA MEHTA. For 19 years I studied with this extraordinary woman who died in 2009. Mataji was a compassionate mother and friend to all. I call this film a tribute to her. It is also a public heart song and opportunity to honor my friend in the company of your support. Mourning art.
Please feel free to remember internally or write the names of your deceased family and friends you would like to honor.
To conclude, I would like to sing for you a prayer by Joseph Goldstein:

MAY ALL BEINGS BE FILLED WITH LOVING KINDNESS
MAY ALL BEINGS BE WELL
MAY ALL BEINGS BE PEACEFULL AND AT EASE
MAY ALL BEINGS BE HAPPY

DEAR ARTISTS OF ART AND ARTISTS OF LIFE
BEFORE I BEGIN, MY FELLOW PERFORMER AND I , KATHERINE WILLIAMSON, WOULD LIKE TO PRESENT AN AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION GAME CALLED C.G.R.C. TRANSLATED AS COMMUNITY OF GIVING, RECEIVING AND CONNECTING.

WE ALL KNLW ABOUT CPR, THIS IS CGRC,. IN FACT IF THERE IS A MEDICAL PERSON HERE WHO COULD DEMONSTRATE CPR, IF NOT, CHEST ONLY, NO MORE MOUTH TO MOUTH, USING THE HEEL OF THE HAND WHILE HUMMING STAYING ALIVE. CORRECT? CAN WE PRACTICE HUMMING STAYING ALIVE IN GOOD PAULINE OLIVEROS FASHION?

TO RETURN TO CGRC, IT WORKS LIKE THIS:
PRESENT A NEED OR PRESENT TO US SOMETHING YOU CAN GIVE
THEN CONNECT VIA IMMEDIATE CELL NUMBER GIVEN HERE, IN PUBLIC, OR EMAIL ADDRESS SHOUTED OUT OR CONNECTING AFTER THE PROGRAM?

TO DEMONSTRATE:
I NEED TO FIND SOMEONE WHO NEEDS A TAX WRITE OFF TO BUY MY ARCHIVE, OWN IT AND THEN DONATE IT TO NEW YORK UNIVERSITY. THE FINDERS FEE IS I GIVE THEM A DAY WITH LINDA MONTANO, TIED AT THE WAIST OR WRIST OR LEG WITH AN 8 FT ROPE. NOW LETS PLAY...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SERIOUSLY, IT IS TRULY A PLEASURE TO BE HERE AGAIN AT THE SFAI, MY ART HOME.
IT TAKES A TEAM TO COORDINATE OUR LIVES: FOR EXAMPLE WE EAT A BAGEL BUT FIRST THERE IS A SEED PLANTED IN THE EARTH AND IT IS
WATERED,
WEEDED,
PICKED,
HARVESTED,
GROUNDED,
TRUCKED TO A PLACE WHERE IT IS
MADE INTO A BAGEL AND
THEN IT IS TRUCKED TO A STORE AND
SOMEONE DRIVES TO THE STORE AND
BUYS IT,
BRINGS IT HOME,
CUTS IT,
TOASTS IT,
PUTS CREAM CHEESE ON IT
AND THEN EATS IT.

THANK YOU SHARON GRACE ,TONY LABAT AND ALLAN DE SOUZA FOR ORCHESTRATING THE VISIT, THANK YOU SARAH EWICK FOR MANAGING ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS, THANK YOU KATHERINE WILLIAMSON FOR PERFORMING WITH ME, THANKS TO SASHA DOBS, MANAGER OF THE LECTURE HALL AND KENT LONG , PROJECTIONIST.
THANKS TOBE CAREY VIDEO EDITOR...

AND THANKS TO EACH OF YOU FOR FINDING TIME TO COME HERE,
ON FOOT,
CAR,
BUS,
SUBWAY,
BIKE,
TAXI,

..I APPRECIATE THAT YOU ARE WILLING TO PARTICIPATE IN A GROUP, ONE HOUR, FACE-TIME PERFORMANCE.

IN 25 YEARS WE MIGHT BE LISPING ROBOTS FACE TO ROBOT FACE, WHO KNOWS?

TRULY I THANK YOU FOR YOUR FACE TIME, A REAL COMMODITY, AND WONDER HOW YOU GOT HERE?
HOW MANY PARKED IN
A 2 HOUR ZONE?
DROVE OVER 1 HOUR TO GET HERE?
HOW MANY TOOK BUS?
TAXI?
BIKE?
BOAT?
HOW MANY LEFT CAREGIVING A PARENT,
FRIEND,
CHILD TO GET HERE?
HOW MANY LEFT A GARDEN?
MEDITATION CUSHION?
MISSED A MEAL?
HOW MANY SPENT MORE THAN 7 DOLLARS TO GET HERE?

I AM GRATEFUL FOR YOUR PRESENCE.
ORIGINALLY I WAS GOING TO SHOW THE FILM, NO WORDS, BUT..
THEN THE BIRDS,
THEN THE MUD,
THEN MORE WATER,

THEN OVER THE LAST FEW WEEKS MORE AND MORE NUMBERLESS TOXIC NUMBINGS KEPT COMING AND I RESPONDED TO OUR PRESIDENTS CALL FOR AN INCREASE OF
ACCOUNTABILITY,
TRANSPARENCY,
RESPONSIBILITY AND
CIVILITY BY MAKING SURE THAT YOU ARE COMFORTABLE WITH MY ART CONTENT.

OF COURSE WE ARTISTS ARE NOT HAVING TO BE AS RESPONSIBLE AS THE:

NEUROSURGEON IMPLANTING A DEEP BRAIN STIMULATION UNIT IN A PATIENT,
OR AS ACCOUNTABLE AS A JET AIRLINE PILOT FLYING TO COSTA RICA
OR AS WAKEFUL AS A SCHOOL BUS DRIVER BRINGING FIRST GRADERS BACK HOME AT 2:30PM.

WE ARTISTS ARE ACCOUNTABLE IN A MYSTERIOUS WAY TO MYSTERY ITSELF OR AS POET JEROME ROTHENBERG STATES....WE ARE TECHNICIANS OF THE SACRED.

BUT GOOD CATHOLIC GIRL THAT I HAVE RE-BECOME, I NEED TO GIVE WARNINGS AND DISCLAIMERS JUST IN CASE .......

THE FILMS:
THE BUDDHA SAW SICKNESS OLD AGE AND DEATH AND GOT BUSY WAKING UP..I AM INSPIRED TO DO THE SAME, NOT ONLY BECAUSE MY ITALIAN ZEN FATHER USED TO SAY, LINDA WAKE UP ALOT BUT BECAUSE 1. I HAVE A MOVEMENT DISORDER,
2. IM OLD AND
3. MY BEST FRIEND DR ARUNA MEHTA DIED.

DISCLAIMER
1.FOR FILM:THE LISPING ROBOT POVERA:

MY MOTHER COLLECTED MOST OF THESE MASKS AND IN HER 70S WENT OUT TRICK OR TREATING ON HALLOWEEN WEARING THEM. SHE IS MY FIRST PERFORMANCE ART TEACHER. I DISCLAIM THAT I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO DISCLAIM HERE, EXCEPT THAT I GREW UP WITH THESE MASKS AND THEY REFERENCE NOTHING BUT MY EARLY CHILDHOOD INFLUENCES AND MY MOTHER'S CREATIVITY.
DISCLAIMER

...BUT KNOW THAT MY INTENTION IS TO USE MY PAIN AS A METHOD AND MATERIAL FOR ART. THE WAY I DO THAT IS TO CUT AND PASTE ILLNESS AND BRING IT OUT OF THE OYE VEY MIND, THEN TRANSFORM PAIN WITH WORDS, FILM, PERFORMANCE, BOOKS....
DEMONSTRATING THE RECIEPE:
IF LIFE
OR THE PLANET HURTS MAKE ART,
IF LIFE
OR THE PLANET DOESNT HURT, MAKE ART.

ART IS NEUROBIOLOGY.
(HOW IT FEELS TO HAVE A STROKE..TED TALKS...JILL B TAYLOR, NEURO BIOLOGIST)

DISCLAIMER 3 FOR FILM : MOTHER TERESA:WITH ALL DUE RESPECT:ONE DAY WHILE MY DYSTONIA CRAMPED ME OVER , I FELT JUST LIKE MOTHER TERESA. THAT IS THE ORIGIN OF THIS PERFORMANCE.

DISCLAIMER 4 FOR FILM : THANK YOU DR ARUNA MEHTA: MATAJI, MA, BA(GRANDMOTHER ) HAS MANY NAMES, BUT I KNOW HER AS THE MOTHER OF
COMPASSION. IN THIS FILM ARE FOUR OF HER MANY GRANDCHILDREN: NEHA ,DIMPESH, AMISHA AND ASMI AND HER HUSBAND.

ASHISH, HER GRANDSON IS WITH US TONIGHT.

MY INTENTION IS TO HONOR HER AND SHARE HER GREATNESS WITH U. AT THE END OF THE PERFORMANCE I WILL GIVE YOU A PAPER WHICH CONTAINS ONE OF HER WISDOM SAYINGS.

THIS FILM IS WITHOUT DISCLAIMER.

DISCLAIMER 5 FOR THE YOU TUBE OF 2 YEAR OLD GIRL SINGING..

THE DISCLAIMER IS:COMPASSIONATE HOPE.

AT AMERICAN INDIAN POTLATCHES ,GIFTS WERE GIVEN . I END THIS INTRODUCTION WITH THE GIFT OF A QUICK VERBAL SCAN OF THE BODY..
A GIFT OF GRATITUDE TO
THE 300 TRILLION CELLS OF THE BODY,
GRATITUDE TO THE 230 BONES,
THE 650 MUSCLES, NO PAY,
THE 7 GLANDS,
THE 24 FEET OF INTESTINE,
GRATITUDE TO THE HEART, TO THE HEART, TO THE HEART..............

DO YOU WANT TO BRING 3 LIFE OR ART "ISSUES "(FOOD,IMTIMACY,AGING,MONEY,FAME ETC)TO A WORKSHOP AND SEE THEM TURNED INTO CREATIVE MATERIAL INSTANTLY?

MONTANO HAS BEEN PRACTICING HER LIFE-TO-ART WORK SINCE 1969 AND WILL BRING THOSE SKILLS TO THIS WORKSHOP TO SHARE.
BELIEVE IT OR NOT, NO PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE REQUIRED,JUST A WILLINGNESS TO FORM A COMMUNITY OF CREATIVE TRUST WITH THE OTHER MEMBERS OF THE GROUP

A WILLINGNESS TO LAUGH AND DREAM;

A WILLINGNESS TO WEAR A WIG OR DANCE A NEED;

A WILLINGNESS TO SMILE& REMEMBER THAT LIFE OFFERS WONDERFULL OPPORTUNITIES TO TRANSFORM DAILY LIFE INTO JOY/TRAUMA

INTO TREMENDOUS OPPORTUNITY.

MONTANO HAS TAUGHT THIS METHOD FOR OVER 30 YEARS.

BRING 3 PROPS, MAYBE A WIG? WRITING MATERIALS.DEFINATELY A BLANKET AND LUNCH.
SEE WWW.LINDAMONTANO.COM (ART/LIFE STORY)FOR MORE ABOUT MONTANO.

Linda Mary Montano, a seminal figure in contemporary feminist performance art, has been actively exploring her art/life since the mid 1960s. Her work investigates the relationship between art and life through intricate life altering ceremonies, some of which last for seven or more years. She is interested in the way artistic ritual, often staged as individual interactions or collaborative workshops, can be used to alter and enhance a person's life and to create the opportunity for focus on spiritual energy > states, silence and the cessation of art/life boundaries. > For more about Montano go to www.lindamontano.com
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